Lisa Leff

Associate Professor
Department of History

Additional Positions at AU

Director of the Undergraduate Program, History

Lisa Leff is a historian of Europe since 1789 whose research focuses on Jews in France. Her first book, Sacred Bonds of Solidarity (Stanford UP, 2006), examines the rise of Jewish international aid in 19th century France. Her most recent book is called The Archive Thief (Oxford University Press, 2015). Through the story of Zosa Szajkowski, a historian who moved tens of thousands of documents from France to the U.S., it examines a larger set of questions about Jewish nationalism, Jewish archives, and Jewish history writing in the era of the Holocaust and its aftermath. She received her BA from Oberlin College and her PhD from the University of Chicago.

Degrees

PhD University of Chicago, 2000MA, University of Chicago, 1993BA, Oberlin College, 1991